


A War is Anything but Civil

by cazmalfoy



Series: IronStrange Husbands [2]
Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Civil War Team Iron Man, Established Relationship, IronStrange, M/M, Not Captain America Friendly, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Pre-Doctor Strange (2016), Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, not bucky barnes friendly, secret husbands
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-06
Updated: 2018-10-06
Packaged: 2019-07-26 00:43:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16209113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cazmalfoy/pseuds/cazmalfoy
Summary: Stephen is in surgery when he hears the news report any spouse dreads."... the remains of Tony Stark have been located.."





	A War is Anything but Civil

Tony Stark was going to be the death of him, Stephen just knew it.

He should have cut his ties and run years ago - hell, they both should have. It would have saved him a lot of stress and heartache, that’s for sure.

Seriously, getting kidnapped and tortured in Afghanistan would have been enough to make most people run and hide away from the rest of the world. But not Tony Stark.

Nope, Stephen’s stupidly noble husband had to go and turn himself into freakin’ _Iron Man_ , and become an actual superhero.

Over the years that had passed since Tony’s sudden announcement at _that_ press conference, Stephen liked to think that he had grown more used to the feeling of worry that settled in his chest whenever his StarkPhone informed him that Tony was heading out on a mission.

But in truth, he knew that he would never be comfortable with the man he loved putting his life in danger, even if he was doing it for the greater good.

In the early days of Iron Man - back when the suits were still in single digits - Stephen had tried to talk him out of what he was planning, but the genius inventor had stubbornly stuck to his guns. 

In the end, Tony had told Stephen that he was going to be Iron Man with or without his blessing.

At the end of the argument, Stephen had decided that he couldn’t stand in the way of whatever redemption Tony was trying to earn himself.

He knew that he just had to hope that the other man knew what he was doing and wouldn’t come back broken beyond repair.

And, for a few years, Stephen had managed to convince himself that he could cope with Tony being a little bruised and beaten up, as long as he was safe.

Then the Winter Soldier - fucking _Bucky Barnes -_ had happened and the whole world had seen a different side of the Captain America they had all grown up with stories of.

Stephen tried to keep his opinions on the matter to himself as he knew they weren’t the most popular, but when Tony had stepped in to help rebuild after the battle between Rogers and Barnes, Stephen hadn’t been able to keep silent anymore.

That had resulted in the biggest argument the couple had ever had. They’d spent three months not speaking to each other, before finally admitting that the other was right in their thinking and that they were both idiots.

The make-up sex had been out of this world.

*

Stephen had been in a routine surgery when everything changed. 

Looking back, he knew that he would always be able to recall where he had been when he’d heard the news. 

He distinctly remembered having an argument about the Sex Pistols’ Never Mind the Bollocks album with one of his junior doctors.

The argument had died on his lips when the background music he always had playing abruptly came to a stop and automatically switched to a news channel of its own accord. 

_“We’re getting unconfirmed reports that the remains of Tony Stark have been located after an extensive search.”_ Stephen felt his heart stop in his chest, but the reporter didn’t stop speaking. _“Sources say that the body was found inside a powerless Iron Man suit, lying beside the metal arm of the Winter Soldier and Captain America’s shield.”_

Stephen didn’t hear the rest of what the reporter had to say; he couldn’t hear anything over the rushing of blood in his ears.

It couldn’t be true. It just couldn’t.

He stumbled back from the patient on the table, murmuring to his assistant to finish what he had started, before turning on his heel and bolting from the room, only pausing to throw his bloody gloves in the trash on the way out.

As soon as he was in the hall, Stephen reached for his StarkPhone, activating it with shaky hands as he called Tony without even thinking about it.

To his surprise - relief? - the call was answered immediately. But not by his husband.

“Doctor Strange, thank goodness!” Friday’s voice sounded scared and that fact alone did not set Stephen’s mind at ease.

“Friday,” Stephen croaked, having to cough around the lump in his throat. “What’s going on?” Friday hesitated and Stephen screwed his eyes closed. “Just tell me.”

There was another moment of hesitation - a moment that felt like a year - before Friday finally answered, “You need to get down to the Emergency Room, Doctor.”

*

Stephen made it down to the Emergency Room in less than a minute; he had no idea how he managed it, since it usually took at least 3, but he was too distracted to care.

The area was filled with it’s usual hustle and bustle that came with saving lives; doctors, nurses and orderlies all rushed past. None of them even giving Stephen a second glance.

A female doctor brushed past him, again without looking, before she paused and did a double take. “Stephen?” Christine asked in surprise, her eyes widening a margin. “What are you doing down here?” There was a note of confusion in her voice which Stephen could understand completely; he rarely ventured down to the ER and had made his feelings about the department pretty vocal in the past.

But now any feelings he had for the death preventing work they did was overruled by the news reel he had seen and what Friday’s instructions meant.

“I…” He could lightly to try and clear the blockage in his throat. “Is Tony Stark here?”

_Please say no. Please say no. Please say no._

Christine stared at him for a long moment, her eyes scrutinising his face while a look Stephen couldn’t name settled on hers. Eventually she replied, “How did you know?” Her voice dropped down to a whisper that was almost inaudible over the noise around them.

Shit, Friday had been right. “Where is he?” Stephen retorted, ignoring her question in favour of one of his own.

She wasn’t going to give the answer up that easily and Stephen knew it. “You know I can’t tell you that, Stephen. If word got out that T- _he_ is here we’d have the media swarming all over this place, and wouldn’t be able to do our _jobs_.”

Logically, Stephen knew she was right, but at that moment in time he found that he couldn’t be logical.

“The news channels are reporting that they found a _body_ , Christine.” He tried to ignore the way his heart clenched at the word and how his breath caught in his throat at the mere thought of Tony being…

Christine raised an eyebrow, not picking up on the distress that Stephen had to have been radiating. “You’d think they would get their facts straight before scaring the country,” she muttered. There was something in her voice that made the dying spark of hope flare in Stephen’s chest. Before he could open his mouth, she narrowed her eyes, “Don’t even ask, Stephen. Like I said, the fewer people who know where he is, the be-,”

“He’s my husband.”

Stephen hadn’t meant to blurt the statement out; he couldn’t remember the last time he had told anyone that he was married. His parents, maybe? But that had been back in college, so he didn’t think that counted since it was so long ago.

The woman in front of him froze, her mouth still open ready to say the final word of her sentence. Her eyes were wider than Stephen would have ever thought possible. She pressed her hand over her mouth. “What?”

There was no sense in lying to her now; no way he could take back what he had said. And a part of him didn’t want to. Not anymore.

He ran a hand over his face. “Senior year of college. Tony and I met, one thing lead to another, and…” Stephen pushed back his sleeve, revealing the Vibranium bracelet he never removed; his version of a wedding ring and made from material Tony had found abandoned in his father's workshop after Howard and Maria's deaths.

Without a word, and with difficulty since it was so rarely used, he undid the clasp on the bracelet and held it up to Christine for her inspection. From where she was standing it wouldn’t have been difficult to read the engraving.

_Anthony Edward Stark & Stephen Vincent Strange - November 18 1990_

Tears welled up in the corner of Christine’s eyes and Stephen could see her heart breaking for him. While he appreciated her sympathy, he didn’t want it; he wanted answers about his husband.

“Please, Christine,” Stephen begged as he replaced the bracelet on his wrist. “I need to know.”

He could see her struggling with himself once more; doctor patient confidentiality warring with her desire to comfort a friend. In the end, she seemed to reach a decent enough middle ground.

“He’s alive,” she whispered, reaching out and placing a hand on Stephen’s arm. “Far too many injuries to go into now, and he’s been in surgery for _hours_. But he’s out of the immediate danger zone.”

Stephen released the breath he had been holding since he’d left the operating theatre. He was about to press her for more details when she continued, “He’s in a private room; CL891.”

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Stephen swept her up into a tight hug, before running down the corridor in the direction of the suite she had said.

There were two guards standing outside the room when he got there; Tony’s personal shadows whenever there was a threat to his safety. Stephen was expecting to have to fight and argue his way inside, but as he approached one of the guards pressed a finger to his ear, listening intently to whatever orders he was being given.

“Yes, ma’am,” he guard murmured, turning the hand on the door and stepping to the side to allow Stephen entry without the doctor needing to speak a word.

If he was a gambling man, Stephen would have bet that those orders had been given with an Irish lilt from an AI who was very protective of her creator and his family.

Taking a deep breath to prepare himself, Stephen stepped inside the room and closed the door behind him.

*

Tony didn’t look too bad, was Stephen’s first thought.

Sure he looked pale, but he usually did when he hadn’t come out of his lab for days at a time. There was a slight purple sheen to his right eye, but Stephen had seen darker bags during their video calls in the past. The cut on his lip was still angry and red, but again Stephen had gotten used to the sight of the superhero when he’d come off worse in a fight against a villain.

“Uh oh, I’m in trouble now,” Tony quipped when he saw Stephen enter the room. There was a smile on his face that didn’t fully reach his eyes, but he seemed as happy to see Stephen as ever.

Stephen didn’t - _couldn’t_ \- reply as he got closer to the bed. His eyes had fallen on the bandages across Tony’s chest, bandages which were glowing with a familiar blue light. A light Tony had gotten rid of years ago.

Tony followed his gaze and his expression fell serious again. “I know,” he whispered, holding his hand out for Stephen’s. Comfort the other man gave without even hesitating. “The doctors didn’t have a choice. It was either this or a mechanical heart; at least the arc reactor is more practical.”

Stephen couldn’t help laughing at the words; his husband always knew what to say to make him smile or laugh. Only this time the laugh came out slightly hysterical and it made Tony frown.

Tony released his hand and reached up to cup Stephen’s cheek. “I’m o- Well, not okay; I don’t think I’ll be okay for a while. But I’m doing fine,” he whispered, brushing the pad of his thumb across Stephen’s cheekbone as the doctor sat on the edge of the bed.

“What happened?” Stephen asked, turning his head to press a kiss against Tony’s palm. 

There was a moment of hesitation from Tony and Stephen almost screamed; he needed some answers, dammit. He didn’t need to though, because Tony must have just been gathering his thoughts before he spoke.

“The Winter Soldier killed my parents,” Tony said, his voice broken and smaller sounding than Stephen had ever heard it. “Ste - _Rogers_ apparently knew this entire time. We had a bit of a disagreement about it.”

Stephen saw red; not at the words Tony said, but he ones he wasn’t saying. “That bastard did this to you?” he snarled. He had never been a fan of Captain America - between the way the media portrayed him, Tony’s stories and Rogers’ attitude the few times they had met, Stephen had detested him from the moment he had been thawed out.

Tony didn’t answer immediately and that was all the confirmation that Stephen needed. 

“I am going to kill him,” Stephen decided, the tone of his voice leaving no room for argument from Tony.

To his surprise, a response to his words didn’t come from his husband, they came from behind him. “Get in line.”

Stephen whirled around and saw that there was a young man - teenager, really - sitting on the couch near the window. How Stephen hadn’t noticed him originally, he had no idea.

“You’re not supposed to be here,” Tony grumbled, a pout forming on his lips.

The teenager raised an eyebrow and pushed himself up from the couch. “I needed to make sure they didn’t come back.” There was a note of fear in his voice that made Stephen wonder exactly who this kid was.

Not that he needed to wonder for long. “Stephen, you remember me telling you about Spider-Man? Meet his alter ego, Peter Parker,” Tony said, waving his hand in the direction of the younger man.

Peter’s eyes widened in surprise at being introduced as Spider-Man and he opened his mouth to… what? Probably deny that he was who Tony had said.

Before he could form the words, Tony pressed on, turning the introduction around. “Pete, this is Doctor Stephen Strange. My…” There he floundered, clearly not knowing how best to introduce Stephen to this new progeny. 

“Husband,” Stephen finished for him, earning him a surprised look from Tony. He knew that they had never officially talked about keeping their relationship secret, but the feeling of liberation he felt from telling Christine was something that Stephen could easily find himself becoming addicted to.

Peter responded quicker to the surprise than Stephen expected and a grin spread across his face. “Nice to meet you, Dr Strange-Stark,” he quipped, a smirk on his face when Tony laughed. “I’m going to find us food. Don’t miss me too much.”

Before Stephen had even registered that he had moved, Peter was up and out of the room, letting the door fall softly closed behind him.

As soon as they were alone again, the seriousness of the situation came flooding back and Stephen’s shoulders slumped as he turned back to Tony. “I’m glad you’re alive,” he whispered, running his hand over Tony’s messy hair. “The news… They’re saying you died, and then I got a call from Friday…”

He broke off with a small sob and had to screw his eyes closed to stop tears from falling down his cheeks.

Tony reached out and placed a hand on Stephen’s arm. “Hey,” he whispered to get the doctor’s attention. Stephen opened his eyes and met Tony’s warm gaze with his own. “I don’t know where the news gets their information from, but if I’d known they were saying that, I would have made sure Fri told you earlier that I’m alive.”

Stephen tried to offer Tony a smile, but he couldn’t muster up the energy to make his face respond to his command.

“I can’t lose you, Tony,” he whispered. “This is the closest you’ve… You…” He broke off with a shake of his head. “You can’t leave me alone; I love you too much,” he murmured, leaning forward and pressing his forehead against Tony’s.

The second the words were out of his mouth, the pair of them froze. Stephen knew that, despite having been married for almost thirty years, neither of them had ever actually talked about their feelings. And they had definitely never said those three words to each other and actually meant it.

But he did, Stephen found himself realising. He loved Tony more than anyone else he’d ever met, and he wanted the other man to know how he felt. He didn’t know when the feelings had evolved from friendship and lust into something deeper, but now that he was thinking about it, he couldn’t remember a time when he didn’t feel like his world revolved around Anthony Stark.

Tony recovered from the words a fraction of a second quicker than Stephen and his lips curled into a smile. “I love you too.” He couldn’t move much because of the injuries to his chest, but Stephen was close enough that all Tony needed to do was tilt his head and press their lips together.

A heavy silence passed between them; both of them too lost in thoughts of what had happened and the reality of what it all meant. 

Stephen knew that his injury and subsequent re-implantation of the arc reactor wasn’t going to slow Tony down, but he also knew that there was no way he was going to let the other man get away with diving straight back into work.

He needed to give his body time to recover and Stephen was adamant that he was going to make sure Tony did that.

A pout formed on Tony’s lips and Stephen quickly realised that he had been speaking aloud. “But I don’t wanna stay in bed, mom!” he whined, the corners of his mouth twitching up in a smile that was more genuine than Stephen would have expected.

“Tough,” Stephen retorted, kissing away the pout with a chuckle. “You’re going to stay in bed until you’re completely healed. And then we’re going to talk about you doing stupid things that nearly get yourself killed.”

Tony scowled and made to fold his arms across his chest, before he realised that he probably shouldn’t and aborted the action.

Before Stephen could soothe the other man, there was a light knock on the door and Peter stepped back inside.

“Hey! So I wasn’t sure what juice you wanted, so I got all the flavours,” Peter said, diving straight into a detailed description of the juice as he placed the tray on Tony’s bedside table.

As Peter babbled on, Stephen looked over at Tony. The superhero was watching Peter with such a look of adoration that it made Stephen’s chest clench in a way he was familiar with, but only in relation to Harley Keener.

Slowly, Stephen shifted himself on the bed and leant closer to Tony, close enough that he could whisper in his ear. “When we’re alone, you and I are going to have a serious discussion about you adopting more kids without letting me know, by the way.”

The grin he got in response to his words was completely unrepentant. Stephen in that moment that they were going to be okay. Steve Rogers was not going to be the one who broke Tony Stark, he was far stronger than that.

And if he wasn’t feeling like he could be, then Stephen would be the strength he needed until he was.

*


End file.
